are you able to use the USB 3.1 ports on connected monitors ?

[soamz]

Hi, Im on the verge of ordering the LG 32UD99-W monitor which has 2 USB3.1 ports on the monitor.
Since MacBook pro doesnt have USB ports and only USB-C ports, I wanted to know, can I use those USB3.1 directly on the Monitor and access my files and folders of the pen drive on the MacBook pro ?

 

[oreganoinferno]

I have the LG 27UD88-W which also connects to my 2017 MBP 2-port via USB C only. The classic USB ports on the Screen work flawless IMO. I recently used it to transfer big amounts of data between two external HDD drives - my impression was that the speed was normal, as if directly connected to the MBP. Have not done any speed measurements, though.

 

[smirking]

"Access the pen drive on the MacBook Pro?" Are you asking if you can plug in a pen drive into the monitor instead of your MBP or do you have some device that you want to connect to the monitor that needs to be able to traverse all the way back through the monitor, onto your MBP, finally access a pen drive that's connected directly to your MBP?

 

[soamz]

Yes my monitor is connected to the macbook pro and since there are no USB ports in the MacBook pro, I want to connect the pen drives or external drives directly to the monitor and use it .

 

[smirking]

Yes my monitor is connected to the macbook pro and since there are no USB ports in the MacBook pro, I want to connect the pen drives or external drives directly to the monitor and use it .

Yeah, that'll work just fine. The speeds should be just fine too. Just remember that USB 3.1 g2 is 10Gbps and Thunderbolt 3 is 40Gbps. Depending on the number of external drives, how they're linked up, and how you use them, you could get some bottlenecking.

I'm presuming that you don't have any hardware that can take full advantage of the TB3's speed and wouldn't be affected by being separated by the slower USB 3.1 link in between.

[automerge]1581057720[/automerge]

 

[soamz]

Yes 3.1 is more than enough.
I only move data between hard drives and SSDs.

BTW, LG 32UD99-W is not available in India.
Is LG 32UD89-W fair purchase if I dont need the HDR ?

 

[smirking]

BTW, LG 32UD99-W is not available in India.
Is LG 32UD89-W fair purchase if I dont need the HDR ?

I don't have any insight on either of those monitors. Hopefully by some random chance someone else will, but I suspect you might not find an answer to that here. Monitor quality is pretty fickle anyway. Even good monitors sometimes end up with bad panels. It's just so hard to say whether a monitor is good or not without a large number of reviews.

 

[leman]

It should work, with the caveat that the monitor must be able to supply enough power to the external drive. Another point is that most USB-C monitors can only negotiate USB-2 speeds in combination with video signal.

 

[theluggage]

Yes 3.1 is more than enough.

...but you won't get USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) - you'll only get USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) which is really slow by modern standards. It might be OK for light use, Time Machine backups etc. (or if you're using an old USB 2 HD or cheap thumb drive) but you'll do better using a USB-C to A adapter to connect them to the second USB-C port on your Mac.

Simple principle*: you can't have 4k, 60Hz video and USB 3 over a single USB-C connection - it doesn't physically have enough wires.

* unless you get a Thunderbolt monitor (the LG you mention isn't Thunderbolt) or the newer DisplayPort 1.4 protocol is supported by both your monitor (the LG doesn't) and your Mac (not unless its a 2018 or later 15/16" MBP)

 

[smirking]

Yeah, what @theluggage said. I forgot to factor in the bandwidth eaten up by the video feed. Maybe you should just connect a good old fashioned USB 3.1 hub to your MBP. I assume one of the reasons you want to connect things to your monitor is for convenience so you don't have to plug and unplug stuff from your MBP all the time. This wouldn't be as nice, but at least you'll just have to deal with two plugs.

 

[robvas]

I use my LG monitor USB-C ports for keyboard, mouse, iphone...2.0 speeds are fine for that.

If I use a hard drive or something like that I plug straight into the MacBook.